Broncos & NFL

Kiszla: Broncos handed out the rings no NFL player wants

The Broncos received their AFC championship rings this week in what coach John Fox says will provide the team "closure" from its 43-8 loss in the Super Bowl. (Provided by Chris Hall, Denver Broncos)

The Broncos handed out the rings no NFL player wants.

And 128 days after getting embarrassed 43-8 by the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl, coach John Fox told me Tuesday a private ring ceremony finally gave his team "closure."

No more tears. No more curses. No more regrets.

New season. Same dream. But Denver won't win a championship by trying to replay a game that was gone in 60 seconds, after the botched opening snap of Super Bowl XLVIII.

On the eve of minicamp, players and staffers gathered in the auditorium of their Dove Valley headquarters to put in motion a championship action plan for 2014. But, first, the Broncos collected their AFC championship rings, which are beautiful, bittersweet reminders of how they fell one victory short of their ultimate goal.

"It's the same square footage, and the costs are very much the same as a Super Bowl ring. Mr. (Pat) Bowlen and the organization spent a lot of money on the rings, so you do want to recognize the great things this team accomplished. You don't celebrate it. But I think you have to recognize it and show appreciation for the players who are still here, as well as for the players who aren't here any longer. I think everybody knows what our goals are. We've moved on from the Super Bowl loss. And this was closure," said Fox, offering a glimpse of what happened in the big lecture hall, where former Broncos linebacker Tom Jackson addressed the team Monday and talked passionately from the heart, as an alum who will forever bleed orange.

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The selection of Jackson to speak during the ring ceremony was perfect. He won two conference championship rings with Denver, but never had the pleasure of kissing the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

I asked quarterback Peyton Manning what a conference championship ring means to him, and his first response was a long, heavy sigh.

The sigh alone probably said it all, without another word of explanation from Manning.

But, after slowly exhaling, Manning spoke in the measured tone of a man walking away from the Super Bowl loss with emotional scars he will carry forever but eyes fixed straight ahead on the only prize that really matters to the quarterback at this point in his Hall-worthy career.

"We did a lot of good things last year, and we need to build on those things. You just don't go out and go a step further because you went that far last year. ... We have to go out and do it again, and then try to find a way to finish it. That's what the meeting was about (Monday) night, and I thought coach Fox was very clear on what the goals were, what the goals are for this season," Manning said.

The past is dead. Will anyone ever see Manning with Denver's AFC championship ring on his finger?

"Probably not," Manning said.

Broncos strength and conditioning coach Luke Richesson has a mantra adopted by Manning. "When is life happening? Right now," Manning said. "That's kind of our theme, and I think guys have bought into that."

Fox has won two NFC championships, as the defensive coordinator with the New York Giants during the 2001 season and as head coach of the 2003 Carolina Panthers.

"But this is my first AFC one," Fox told me with the dry, self-deprecating wit that distinguishes him from so many puffed-up football coaches who act as if they invented the game.

I asked Fox where his two NFC championship rings could be found.

"In a safe in Charlotte, North Carolina," Fox said. "And the one I have from the Broncos is already in a safe here in Denver."

When's the last time the coach even so much as took those NFC championship rings out of his safe to look at them?

"Awww," said Fox, wrestling with his memory. "It has been at least eight years, maybe 10 years."

Yes, coaches and players get paid handsomely, win or lose. But the losing not only hurts, it lingers.

It's championship or bust for the Broncos. Sure, the expectation can be a heavy rock to carry. But, if it were any other way at Dove Valley, I'm not sure Manning would put his surgically repaired neck on the line to play QB at age 38, or John Elway would keep grinding as the executive in charge of the team when he could be swinging a 3-wood at Pebble Beach or any drop-dead gorgeous golf course in North America.

The Broncos got their rings. They will shine forever but will never be truly cherished. These were the wrong rings. When you think about it, those rings should be all the motivation this team needs in 2014.

If Fox wins the Super Bowl as coach of the Broncos, will he wear that ring to Denver restaurants or on ski slopes in the Rocky Mountains?

"It's hard to say. I'm not much of a jewelry guy," said Fox, laughing. "But I'd like to find out, and then figure it out what I'd do when it happened."

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